Garment-hanger bar



May 9, 1967 K. F. BECKER GARMENT-HANGER BAR I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 1, 1965 FIGS. 2s Z5 L W 24 3m K. F. BECKER GARMENT HANGER BAR I5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 1, 1965 M T s a 2 x3 4 mm V s l 2 .3 w n\m a 1 4 firlll 4 3 m Mg m E .3 F

FIG.4.

FIGS.

May 9, 1967 K. F. BECKER GARMENT-HANGER BAR 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 1, 1965 being also shown at the bottom of the view are outer closing panels United States Patent 3,318,460 GARMENT-HANGER BAR Kenneth F. Becker, Hanley Hills, Mo. (7701 Underhill Drive, St. Louis, Mo. 63133) Filed July 1, 1965, Ser. No. 468,713 11 Claims. (Cl. 211-423) This invention relates to garment-hanger bars, and with regard to certain more specific features, to such bars for use in the packaging of garments for shipment.

Among the several objects of the invention may be noted the provision of a unitary hanger bar of the class above mentioned which by a user may be conveniently manually prepared, inserted and anchored in conventional cardboard or like wardrobe-type packages used for garment transportation, and which will conveniently receive, space and effectively hold conventional hangers and the garments thereon in such packages; and the provision of a hanger bar of the class described which is constructed not only to produce the above-mentioned functions but also one which may be rapidly produced in quantity and delivered at low cost in a variety of lengths to fit various package widths. Other objects and features will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the elements and combinations of elements, features of construction, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter described, and the scope of which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which one of various possible embodiments of the invention is illustrated,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the open top portion of a conventional wardrobe package showing the hanger bar of the invention applied thereto with one garment hanger in place without a garment;

FIG. 1A is a view similar to FIG 1 on a reduced scale, showing the closed upper end of the wardrobe, ready for shipment;

FIG. 2 is a broken plan view of the hanger bar as manufactured and supplied to a user;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the hanger bar of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a rear elevation thereof;

FIG. 5 is an end elevation thereof taken on line 55 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a number of the hanger bars as nested for low-cost packaging and shipment from the manufacturer to the user;

FIG. 7 is a cross section taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a broken plan view illustrating certain blanking, coping and shearing operations as performed upon a ribbon of sheet metal;

FIG. 9 is a broken perspective view, showing how a user of the hanger bar manually prepares it for application to a wardrobe package such as shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 10 is a view diagrammatically illustrating apparatus by which the hanger bar may be produced, there the results of various operations.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Garments are often shipped by the garment manufacturer in so-called wardrobe packages such as partly shown at numeral 1 in FIG. 1. Such packages are generally composed of stiff cardboard or the like and have vertical walls 3, 5, 7 and 9. Folded down from the upper margin of each side wall 5 and 9 is a narrow stiffening panel 11, attached by staples 13. Hinged to the lower margin of each stiffening panel 11 is a folding panel 15 to which is hinged an inner closing panel 17. Hinged to the upper margins of the front and rear walls 3 and 7 19 and 21.

It has been the practice to place a hanger bar across the top margins of the side panels 5 and 9. My new bar for the purpose is shown at 23. After the bar has been inserted and garment-carrying hangers hooked thereover, the side panels 15, 17 are folded infrom the sides and then panels 19 and 21 are folded over from the front and rear, as shown by the arrows in FIG. 1. Thereafter the infolded panels are taped together to form a permanent closure. Only one hanger H without a garment thereon is shown for illustration in FIG. 1.

Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 2-5, the bar 23 as shipped from the manufacturer will be seen to consist of an inverted U-shaped channel 24, composed of a frontwall 25, a rear wall 27 and a top wall 29. The bar 23 is bent from sheet metal, preferably coil steel. Extending forward from the front wall 25 is a ledge or flange 31 having end or terminal portions 31A separated by blankedout notch portions 33. A part 34 of each notch portion 33 is right-angular, with the apex lying at a region at the bottom of the front wall 25. The part of the ledge 31 between the terminal portions 31A is provided with blankedout notches 35 forming tongues 38, the result being a serrated ledge. The end portions of the channel are provided with two angularly formed relieving slits. In the top wall 29, each slit has a short transverse part 37 extending out to the front wall at a location just above the apex of the triangular part of notch 33; a longitudinal part 39 terminated by a transverse part 41 which extends to the rear wall 27; and a terminal part 43 extending downwardly in the rear wall 27. Coaxial holes 44 are provided through the front and rear walls 25 and 27 in the portions within the relieved ends. By this arrangement, the relieved end portions of the channel may be manually bent by a user, as illustrated in FIG. 9. Bending occurs along vertical lines 45, which extend from the apexes of the triangular notched-out portions 33 to the terminal portions 37 of the relieving slits. This also closes the triangular portions of the notches, as shown at 47, and forms a last notch 35 at each end of the bar. Closure of the right-angular notches determines right-angular positions of the bent end portions of the bar.

It will be observed as an important point that prior to bending the hanger bar has the straight form shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. Thus a mult'plicity of unbent hanger bars may be compactly nested, as illustrated in FIG. 7, and in a minimum of package volume shipped from the manufacturer to the user, who before bending may store them in a minimum space.

The hanger bar in its straight form (FIGS. 2, 3 and 4) can be manufactured very economically. This is illustrated in FIG. 8, which at the left in part shows the simple flat sheet-metal strip 49 from which the hanger bar is made. Suitable blanking, coping and cut-oft operations are performed, as will be described. Thus the notches 35, the notched-out portions 33 and holes 44 are blanked out. A separating shear cut is made at 51. A coping cut is also performed to provide angled relief slots (37, 39, 41 and 43). After separation at shear line 51, the individual lengths are fed one after another through a roll former which bends the separated, blanked and cut strips at right angles along the dotted lines 53 shown in FIG. 8. The result is the channel-shaped form shown in FIGS. 25, having the front wall 25 with the notched outstanding ledge 31, the top 29 and the rear wall 27 with the bendable end portions, to be bent by the user on lines 45, as illustrated in FIG. 9.

In FIG. 10 are diagrammatically illustrated typical machine tools for performing the operations above outlined. These are a cradle 55 for a supply roll 57 of the raw material strip 49. This cradle includes conventional ten- 38 therebetween (see A).

the fingers 38 (see B).

numbered 37, 39, 41, 43,

sion control means 59. At numeral 61 is a roll feeder and at 63 a reciprocating press for sequentially punching out the notches 35. The feeder 61 is connected with the press 63 in the usual manner to advance the strip one pitch distance between notches as the press 63 completes a notch. Such coordination between a feeder and a press, being conventional, requires no further description.

At numeral 65 is illustrated a punch press carrying a suitable compound blanking, for performing at each stroke the right-hand part of FIG. out the notch portions 33, holes 44, the formation of angled slit portions (37, 39, 41 and 43), and also the segmenting cut 51. At numeral 69 is shown a belt-driven transfer section for receiving lengths of prepared fiat material after separation by the press 65. The speed of the transfer section 69 is such as to accelerate each separated length away from oncoming unseparated lengths.

From the transfer section 69, the separated flat blanks are fed into a roll former 71 which, by a conventional simple rolling operation, converts the flat material to the channel shape as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Referring again to the transfer section 69, it will be seen to incorporate an electrical switch mechanism 73, having a finger 75 which, through a suitable mechanism, operates a switch 77 to open and close. The assembly of the finger 75, switch 77 and the linkage between them is slidably carried on a bar 79 and is adapted to be locked in any desired position thereon. The switch 77 is wired in circuit with a solenoid switch 81 which has the effect of starting the press 65 when excited and stopping it when de-excited. The finger 75 is arranged to open the switch 77 in the absence of any strip in the transfer section 69. When the advancing end of the strip strikes the finger 75, the switch 77 is closed, thereby exciting the solenoid 81 to cause the press 65 to execute a stroke, with the result shown in FIG. 8. Thus it will be seen that by adjusting the location-of switch mechanism 73 on the bar 79, the cut-off lengths of the strips before entering the roll former 71 may be selected. While further'details regarding the individual operations of the devices shown in FIG. 9 are not necessary, being known to those skilled in the machine tool art, it will be understood that the operations illustrated in 8. This includes blanking the squence of operations performed, as required by the a construction of the hanger bar, is of importance in reducing costs. Thus by blanking, coping and shearing the metal while flat, thereafter rolling it into its flanged channel form and providing'for leaving final manual bending of the end portions until last, in the hands of the user, manufacturing and shipping costs are reduced. The sequence of operations shown diagrammatically at A, B

and Cat the bottom of FIG. 9 is constituted by first blanking. one margin of a sheet-metal strip to form the series of outwardly directed notches 35 forming fingers blanked at intervals as shown at 34 to remove some of This also provides the oppositely disposed notched-out triangular portions 33. By the same die operation are introduced the S-shaped slits, each each terminating at one end adjacent one of the inwardly directed notches and terminating at its opposite end on the other margin of the strip. The die includes a coping device. At this time the die also produces the transversely disposed pairs of holes 44 in the strip between said slits. It also shears the strip-to divide it into segments. Finally, the segments are conveniently rolled to form the channel shape having the front, top and back walls (25, 29, 27) and the serrated ledge or flange 31 (see C on FIG. 9).

Application of the hanger bar (as manually bent by the user and as shown in FIG. 9) is made to the wardrobe as illustrated in FIG. 1. The bent end portions, which are numbered 83 in FIG. 9, are by means of their channel shapes in the form of hooks. These are hooked shearing and coping die 67 7 Then the notched strip is die- 7 4 over the top edges of the sides 5 and 9. Then nails of suitable form, such as roofing nails, are driven through the openings 44. This usually may be manually accomplished because the wardrobes are usually made of cardboard. If made of more resistant material, the nails may be hammered in. Next, hooks of hangers, one of which is illustrated at 87, are hooked over the channel shapes 25, 27, 29 with the downwardly extending portions of each hook in a notch 35. At this time the hangers have on them the appropriate clothing, such as coats, dresses, or the like. However, for clarity, no clothing is shown on the single hanger illustrated in FIG. 1.

After all hangers are in place on the bar the panels 17 and 19 are closed over, as illustrated in FIG. 1A. As a result, the equally spaced hooks of the hangers on the bar are held captive against swinging unduly and against separating movements from the bar. It will be understood that the hanger bar, like the wardrobe box, isa throw-away item; hence the necessity that it should be of low cost, as accomplished by means of the invention.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As various changes could be in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. A garment-hanger bar composed of bendable sheet metal, comprising a substantially straight downwardly open channel shape having a top wall with downwardly extending front and rear walls, a ledge extending outwardly from the front wall, said channel shape having relieving slits adjacent its ends in the top and rear walls, notches in the ledge adjacent said slits, each slit being shaped to relieve end portions of the bar for bending on the front, each notch in the ledge permitting said bending, whereby several bars may be nested for shipment and thereafter end portions of the 2. A bar made according to claim 1, wherein each' notch is of a shape to be closed upon bending to limit 'the transverse bending of each hook to ninety degrees relative to the remainder of the bar.

3. A bar made according to claim}, wherein the ledge V is notched and the side walls of each with coaxial holes.

4. A unitary sheet-metal garment-hanger bar, comprising a substantially straight downwardly open channel shape having a top walls, said channel shape having relieving slits spaced from its ends, each slit having a longitudinal part in said top wall and continuous endwise angled portions extending to points at the upper margins of the front and rear walls respectively, each slit extending down across the rear wall from the upper marginof the rear wall thereby to free the adjacent whereby several bars may :be nested for shipment and thereafter end portions of the channel shape may be manually bent across the front wall to form downwardly open transversely extending supporting hooks having top and side walls.

5. A bar made according to claim 4, wherein the side walls of each hook contain coaxial openings.

6. A unitary sheet-metal garment-hanger bar, comprising a substantially straight channel shape having front, top and rear walls and a ledge extending at an angle from the lower margin of the front wall, right-angular notches in the ledge adjacent to but spaced from theends of the channel shape, the apex of each notch being 10- hook are provided channel shape may be manually bent across said front wall to form downwall with stiffening front and rear.

end portion of the channel shape,

cated at the angle between the front wall and the ledge, said channel shape having relieving slits adjacent its ends, each slit having a longitudinal part in said top wall and angled ortions extending to points at the upper margins of the front and rear walls respectively, each point at the upper margin of the front wall lying above one of said apexes to provide a line of bending across the front wall, each slit extending across the rear Wall from said point on the upper margin of the rear wall so as to free the adjacent end portion of the channel shape for limited right-angular bending along said line as the respective right-angular notch closes, whereby end portions of the channel shape may be bent to form supporting hooks.

7. A unitary bendable sheet-metal garment-hanger bar, comprising a substantially straight channel shape having front, top and rear walls and a serrated ledge extending at an angle from the lower margin of the front wall, said ledge having endwise unserrated notched portions, each notch having a part which reaches to the lower margin of the front wall, said channel shape having relieving slits adjacent its ends, each slit having a longitudinal part in said top wall and endwise angled portions extending forwardly and rearwardly to points at the upper margins of the front and rear walls respectively, the point at the upper margin of the front wall lying above a notch part at the lower margin of the front wall to determine lines for bending on the front wall, the other end of each slit extending down across the rear wall from said point on the upper margin of the rear wall so as to free an adjacent end portion of the channel shape for bending along said lines of bending, whereby end portions of the channel shape may be bent to form supporting hooks having top and side walls.

8. A garment-hanger bar according to claim 7, wherein each of said notches is in the form of a right angle having its apex at the region of the front wall to be bent, whereby the final bent position of each end portion is limited to a right-angular disposition with respect to the remainder of the channel shape.

9. A garment-hanger bar according to claim 7, wherein the sides of the channel forming said hooks are coaxially perforated.

10. The method of producing garment-hanger bars comprising first blanking one margin of a sheet-metal strip to form a serrated margin, blanking the serrated margin at intervals to provide adjacent notches, cutting adjacent slits into the strip, each slit terminating at one end adjacent one of the notches and terminating at its opposite end on the other margin of the strip, shearing the strip between slits and notches thereby forming segments of the strip, and rolling the segments to form channel shapes having front, top and back walls and a serrated ledge on the front wall, with end portions which are bendable on the front wall to form hooks.

11. The method of producing garment-hanger bars comprising first blanking one margin of a sheet metal strip to form a serrated margin, blanking the serrated margin at intervals to provide adjacent notches and pairs of adjacent holes, cutting adjacent S-shaped slits into the strip, each slit terminating at one end adjacent one of the notches and terminating at its opposite end on the other margin of the strip, shearing the strip between slits, notches and pairs of holes thereby forming segments of the strip, and rolling the segments to form channel shapes having front, top and back walls and a serrated ledge on the front wall, with perforated end portions which are 'bendable on the front wall to form perforated hooks.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,321,916 6/1943 Ingerman 1l3--116 2,535,233 12/1950 Ross 206-7 2,633,979 4/1953 Warnick 206-7 2,753,054 7/ 1956 Becher 211-73 3,057,461 10/1962 Richer 206-7 CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner. CLAUDE'A. LE ROY, Examiner. C. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A GARMENT-HANGER BAR COMPOSED OF BENDABLE SHEET METAL, COMPRISING A SUBSTANTIALLY STRAIGHT DOWNWARDLY OPEN CHANNEL SHAPE HAVING A TOP WALL WITH DOWNWARDLY EXTENDING FRONT AND REAR WALLS, A LEDGE EXTENDING OUTWARDLY FROM THE FRONT WALL, SAID CHANNEL SHAPE HAVING RELIEVING SLITS ADJACENT ITS ENDS IN THE TOP AND REAR WALLS, NOTCHES IN THE LEDGE ADJACENT SAID SLITS, EACH SLIT BEING SHAPED TO RELIEVE END PORTIONS OF THE BAR FOR BENDING ON THE FRONT, EACH NOTCH IN THE LEDGE PERMITTING SAID BEND- 